


Cardinal Sin

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Digital Devil Saga, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Gen, Horror, Hurt No Comfort, no beta we die like Glenn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:53:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23037394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The goddess had bestowed upon her a terrible power.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Cardinal Sin

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry Byleth :(

Reality parted at the slice of her clawed fingertips, shattering the endless void of her temporary prison. Power surged through her veins, as intently as the overwhelming hunger in her very being. It coiled deep within, commanding her actions as if she were merely a puppet on strings to their whims.

She moved with purpose, her ordinary grace replaced with the bloodthirsty desire to cut down everything in her path. Foes standing in her way were spared no mercy, segmented arms fully capable of catching those who attempted to flee at her approach.

One by one they were felled, and all too soon she felt herself crushing Solon’s skull in with her fist. The beast of a man dropped as unceremoniously as the rest.

And thus, the battle was over.

Just like that.

_ Rend his flesh asunder and devour him— _

_ Devour. Devour. Devour— _

Her mind buzzed as she dropped to her knees, ever a servant to her own will. The sheer number of bloodied, torn bodies on the battlefield was a sight to behold, done in by her own hands. It had made her so, so very hungry.

Killing Solon was not enough. Slaughtering his army single-handedly could not satisfy her hunger in any sense of the word, but the blood...

Hunched over his body, any ounce of resistance she may have had dwindled to nothing. She wasted no time ripping into his cool flesh, shoveling chunks into her maw until blackened bones poked out of the unrecognizable mass.

The taste made her want to retch. Something was off about the meat, attributed to the strangely colored bones and even odder blood spilling from the gaping wound she had made. Bile threatened to rise at the back of her throat, but she was so utterly, _suffocatingly_ starved. Who was she to turn down a free meal?

She gnawed at bone, chewed on muscle, savored every second as if it were the last thing she would ever eat.

His unnatural, dark blood pooled around her, seeping into the dirt and lapping at her knees. She cupped as much as she could, gobbling it down with the rest.

More—  _ More— _

In the haze of her feast, her senses had dulled. The lone steps behind her went unnoticed, cautious as they were. It was not until a voice rang out that she snapped to attention and turned, paying no mind to the gore hanging out her mouth.

“P-Professor…?” 

Edelgard. 

She was pale as a ghost, eyes widened in clear fear despite the distance between them. Her words were unsure and wobbly, as if she could not believe what she was seeing.

Something clicked. 

Byleth spit out the chunk of flesh in a hurry, the taste adding far too much to her overwhelmingly newfound sense of nausea. She shot from her place above the body, staring at it. Then Edelgard. 

White hot dread blanketed her, weighed her down as she began to tremble.

“I…”

Her form melted off of her like shed skin, distorted voice leaving with it. The blood on her tongue, the image of Solon’s body freshly slaughtered and  _ devoured _ , however, brought her to retch heartedly.

What had she just done?

Byleth emptied her stomach of its foul contents without hesitation.

_ What was that? _

Edelgard carefully grew closer, gripping her axe tightly despite her own frame shivering like a leaf. If Byleth could speak, wracked by nausea as she was, she would have insisted everything was okay, that it was safe to approach normally.

Her arms connected at the right joints, her hands not ending in twisted claws. All that had consumed her stayed at the very edges of her mind at best, leaving her defenseless to the disgust arrived in their wake.

...She would not have protested execution, in truth.

Black dots started marking Byleth’s vision, quick to take over large swathes of her sight. All she could do was dry-heave, now, the strength to even move completely sapped from her body and her gut emptied and then some.

A spared glance at her student saw her close, hands out in defense as if trying to calm a rabid animal. Edelgard took a tentative knee by her side. Byleth felt the firm grasp of her hands, attempting to coaxe the professor to her feet.

Whatever Edelgard proceeded to say went unheard, however, though Byleth briefly noticed the dropped axe and her student’s concerned-- no,  _ terrified _ expression.

Such an uncharacteristic slip for someone who prided herself in staying put-together.

She responded naught to Edelgard’s attempts, slumping against her, eyes fluttering shut. Darkness claimed her as quickly as it did the last.

* * *

When Byleth came to, she was not on the cold stone floor of a cell as she had expected. Not even dead, in fact. Fingers stroked through her hair comfortingly, lulling her into a sleepy stupor. A melody played at her ears, familiar and soothing.

It was tempting to fall back asleep. Her body ached everywhere, a dull pain so deep it made her groan involuntarily as she shifted, and that was when the singing stopped.

“Professor. You must remain still.”

The hand in her hair moved to cup the side of her face, thumb gently stroking her cheek. Byleth’s eyes opened slowly, blinking away her bleariness as she was met with Rhea’s calm expression.

Questions swirled within, though she could not think of how to voice any of them. She settled into Rhea’s warmth instead and chose to ask the simplest one.

“Where...where am I?”

What happened before, however long ago it was, felt like a nightmare she had finally woken from. Were it real, she begrudgingly noted as the phantom taste of blood coated the back of her tongue, the atmosphere added to her confusion more than anything else. Rage was only the least of what she expected from Rhea, of all people. Surely what she had done bordered on demonic, her new existence a threat to the church in every way.

Perhaps this was normal. Was it? Were there stories of Sothis granting power in such a way?

Rhea smiled. “Everything is all right. There is no need to worry.” Her other arm rested across Byleth’s chest in a sort of half-embrace. The hold was protective, the security being something that put her oddly at ease, despite the anxious thoughts beginning to cloud her mind. “Those who are trying to harm you are far away.”

She fell back into quiet humming, brushing away the light green bangs covering her eyes.

...Green?

“My hair…”

“It is such a beautiful shade,” Rhea replied as Byleth’s voice faltered, question gone unsaid but understood. “You have been blessed by the Goddess herself, dear one. From the moment you took hold of the Sword of the Creator...”

Something on the surface of her skin, directly above her heart, pulsed at the mention of a blessing. The sensation was not unpleasant, but caught her off guard. Whether by a shift in her expression or something else, it came to Rhea’s attention and her eyes flitted briefly to Byleth’s chest. Her smile thinned in a way an untrained eye would not have caught, before warming once more as she continued speaking.

“I prayed that one day the radiant power of Sothis, which bathes Fodlan in its celestial light, might reside within you. But you are so much more than the light. You are my…”

Rhea trailed off. A moment passed and she cleared her throat lightly.

“I am sure you have many questions. But you must rest.” Fingers began to brush through Byleth’s hair again, and she felt her eyelids growing heavy. “Close your eyes, dear one. Sleep, just a while longer.”

She did not need to be told twice.


End file.
